Molecular Signaling Research Team
Team Leader
Atsuko YAMASHITA (D.Agr.)
Sense, such as vision, audition, touch sensation, gustation, and olfaction, is the sole window opening toward the outside of our bodies: it is an important function for living organisms to receive, transduce, integrate, recognize and process a wide array of information from the environment. In this research team, we focus on the first step of sensing through signal reception from environment to signal transduction and transfer in a cell. We aim to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of this process by knowing structures of the participating proteins. The pivot of our study is structural analyses of sensory receptors, signaling proteins, and regulatory proteins by X-ray crystallography using SPring-8 beamlines. We also perform functional analyses of these proteins with biochemical and physiological approaches. The objective of this team is to understand the sensing mechanisms by integrating the structural and functional information.
- Structural and functional analyses of sensory receptors
- Structural and functional analyses of signaling proteins in sensory systems
- Structural and functional analyses of regulatory proteins for sensory receptors
- Research and development of methods to facilitate protein crystallization
- February 25, 2011
- New technique enables simple, quick analysis of properties of membrane proteins
- Ashikawa Y, Ihara M, Matsuura N, Fukunaga Y, Kusakabe Y, Yamashita A.:
GFP-based evaluation system of recombinant expression through the secretory pathway in insect cells and its application to the extracellular domains of class C GPCRs.
Protein Sci. (2011) 20, 1720-1734 - Ihara M, Matsuura N, Yamashita A.:
High-resolution Native-PAGE for membrane proteins capable of fluorescence detection and hydrodynamic-state evaluation
Anal. Biochem. (2011) 412, 217-223 - Singh SK, Piscitelli CL, Yamashita A, Gouaux E.:
A competitive inhibitor traps LeuT in an open-to-out conformation
Science (2008) 322, 1655-1661 - Ihara M, Okajima T, Yamashita A, Oda T, Hirata K, Nishiwaki H, Morimoto T, Akamatsu M, Ashikawa Y, Kuroda S, Mega R, Kuramitsu S, Sattelle DB, Matsuda K.:
Crystal structures of Lymnaea stagnalis AChBP in complex with neonicotinoid insecticides imidacloprid and clothianidin.
Invert Neurosci. (2008) 8, 71-81 - Singh SK, Yamashita A, Gouaux E.:
Antidepressant binding site in a bacterial homologue of neurotransmitter transporters
Nature (2007) 448, 952-956 - Narita, A., Takeda, S., Yamashita, A. & Maeda, Y.:
Structural basis of actin filament capping at the barbed end: a cryo-electron microscopy study
EMBO J. (2006) 25, 5626-5633 - Yamashita A, Singh SK, Kawate T, Jin Y, Gouaux E.:
Crystal structure of a bacterial homologue of Na+/Cl--dependent neurotransmitter transporters
Nature (2005) 437, 215-223 - Kim, K., Yamashita, A., Wear, M. A., Maeda, Y. & Cooper, J. A.:
Capping Protein Binding to Actin in Yeast: Biochemical Mechanism and Physiological Relevance
J Cell Biol. (2004) 164, 567-580 - Takeda, S., Yamashita, A., Maeda, K. & Maeda, Y.:
Structure of the core domain of human cardiac troponin in the Ca2+-saturated form
Nature (2003) 424, 35-41 - Yamashita, A., Maeda, K. and Maeda, Y.:
Crystal structure of CapZ: structural basis for actin filament barbed end capping
EMBO J. (2003) 22, 1529-1538
Principal Investigator
- Atsuko YAMASHITA
- Team Leader
Staff Scientist
- Makoto IHARA
- Research Scientist
Postdoctoral Fellow
- Nipawan NUEMKET
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Eriko NANGO
- Research Associate
Technical Assistant
- Noriko MATSUURA
- Research Assistant